De Oro
by blue-seme
Summary: I wish... Jiraya remembers a past chance for love. Oneshot, OroJira !Warning! Slash, SounenAi, Mild Language, Minor Angst, Mild OOCness, This is my 1st fanfic, please R&R. Disclaimer: I do no own Naruto though I really wish I did!


**De Oro**

'It had been a hot summer,' reflected Jiraya lazily. It was high noon and the spoken sennin was laying in a soft bed of grass, soaking in the hot sunlight. Ero-sennin was idly loafing about, waiting for his loudmouth of a student to catch up with him. Uzumaki Naruto had indeed grown stronger through his training with the sage, though he often still acted like the little gaki he had been during the chunnin exams. For what seemed like the hundredth time, Jiraya thought about how much the hyper blond reminded him of his former student, the Yondaime. The two were practically carbon copies of each other, blue eyes, blond hair, and as annoying as hell. Yet both possessed a strong will and a great sense of determination.

Jiraya chuckled; remembering the many times Naruto had lectured him on his dream to be the next Hokage. Several times the gaki had gotten so fired up he would start to choke on his ramen and Jiraya would have to use the Heimlich maneuver on a spluttering Naruto.

The sennin remembered when he had been as enthusiastic as the Uzumaki. _We were a lot alike actually, that kid and I…_ Ero-sennin munched on a piece of grass thoughtfully. Both he and Naruto had been misfits of sorts, were pranksters, and had teammates who had defected.

_Orochimaru…_ Jiraya's eyes darkened as he thought about the traitorous snake sannin. Many times he had wondered what life could have been like if he had stopped Orochimaru from leaving Konoha. _It couldn't have been avoided; no matter what I could have done he wouldn't have listened to me! _Jiraya had told himself this many times, but he still had dreams, painful, heart-wrenching dreams were Orochimaru was walking away from him, never looking back. He often woke up in a cold sweat, panting like if he had just run several miles.

"I wish…" murmured Jiraya. _I wish what? That I had been stronger? That I had realized his feelings for me earlier? That I had loved him back when I had a chance? Now I'm just a heartbroken old man, loving someone who will never look twice at me again. _The sennin sighed, Orochimaru had loved him, he now knew that. And what had he done? Coldly, ignorantly turned away, shunning his teammate's love, carelessly stamping on his young heart. Jiraya sighed again, and closed his eyes, remembering that other hot summer day so long ago.

---

_It was a bright warm day in the middle of July, Jiraya's team had finished their D-rank mission, it had been particularly frustrating one. They had had to find the Fire Lord's private horde of peacocks; apparently their dimwit of a keeper had left the cage open. It had been quite trying; Jiraya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru had chased the idiotic birds all over town, unsuccessfully attempting to round all twelve up. Finally, by the end of the day they had managed to return all of them, though not without some sacrifices to themselves. Hot, sweaty, and scratched all over, the team reported back to what they had designated as their base, a tall oak tree near the edge of the forest. Tsunade had gone home to clean herself up earlier, and now Orochimaru and Jiraya were alone._

"_God! Why do they have to give us such stupid missions!" ranted a thirteen year-old Jiraya angrily, "You'd think they'd have something more useful for us to do."_

"_D-rank missions are a very important part of our training as ninjas," replied the future snake sannin coolly, leaning up against the tree, "They are not exactly trivial."_

"_That's not the point!" Jiraya cried, glaring at his teammate, "We're genin now, not academy students, they should have more faith in our abilities. Why, I bet 'cha I could do a C-rank mission no sweat!"_

"_You couldn't even take on a couple of birds this afternoon, much less a C-rank", said a stoic Orochimaru, oblivious to seething look the perverted teenager was shooting at him._

"_Shut up! Like you were any better!"_

_Orochimaru grunted, turning his face away and not bothering to reply. Angry that he couldn't vent his frustration any more, Jiraya flopped upon the ground, folded his arms, and proceeded to huffily stare into space._

_The pale- faced teen looked amusedly at his sulking teammate, he couldn't help but think that Jiraya always looked so cute when he pouted. He surreptitiously took in the other genin's unruly white hair that stuck out in every direction, and the bright red tattoos on his cheeks. Because of the heat Jiraya was wearing a thin, sleeveless yukata, exposing his skinny, yet firmly muscled tan arms. The yukata was torn in places on the chest, and Orochimaru could see flashes of firm bronze skin, covered with long red scratches from the peacock's sharp claws. The black-haired genin flushed at the idea of his pale arms around that chest, and tried to rid himself of it._

"_Orochimaru?"_

_The spoken teen sharply looked up, golden eyes immediately trained themselves on Jiraya's face. The other genin looked slightly curious and they gazed right back at him._

"_Why were you looking at me like that?" asked Jiraya, he looked genuinely curious, not joking around or teasing his teammate like he often did._

"_No reason," muttered Orochimaru, trying to suppress a pink blush from tainting his pale face._

"_Ohh, you couldn't keep your eyes away from my super-sexy body! Is that right?" teased Jiraya in his usual I'm-gonna-bug-you-because-I'm-so-hilarious voice._

"_Yeah right," said Orochimaru, extremely proud that his voice wasn't cracking, "Who would want to look at your body?"_

"_Oi! I'll have you know I'm one of best-looking ninjas in Konoha!" growled Jiraya, annoyed that Orochimaru had hit a sore spot. _

"_Hmmph…"grunted the other genin. He was glad they had managed to escape from the earlier question._

_The two teens sat around in silence, gazing over the nearby meadow. It had been a great summer so far, golden and very, very hot. All the village kids went swimming in the river several times a week, Jiraya with them. Cold teas and shaved ice vendors had found their way to the busier streets of Konoha, and people could be seen consuming cool treats on the corners. To Jiraya's delight the outdoor hot springs were more popular than ever, and he spent most of his free days spying on the women's bath and getting chased by angry females. _

_Orochimaru sighed, breaking the silence. 'The fireflies will be coming out soon', he thought idly, gazing at the darkening sky. He wondered if Jiraya used to catch them as a child, he could see the teen as a little kid, running around in loose summer clothes, trying to capture the evading insects. He wondered if Jiraya would let them go right away, or keep them in a jar, like he had. 'He most likely couldn't catch them in the first place, he probably wasn't fast enough,' the teen chuckled inwardly at that notion, yes, that was Jiraya all right._

_In a few minutes those telltale glimmers of light appeared in the shadowed folds of the dusky meadow. Orochimaru knew he would have to go home soon, but he didn't want to leave his teammate, he glanced at Jiraya, the teen had a dumb, cross-eyed face on, which normally meant he was fantasizing. About what, Orochimaru did not want to know. _

"_Maa… Teme?" Jiraya's quiet voice broke the other teenager out of his reverie._

"_Nani?"_

"_Have you ever loved anyone before?" The straightforwardness of the question startled Orochimaru, of course he loved… loves someone. But how could he tell Jiraya that, much less whom?_

"_Huh. How about you?" he asked casually, not really answering the question._

"_Mm, I don't know. I mean, I've read that when you love someone all this stuff is supposed to happen, like your brain goes all fuzzy, and you can't think straight. That sort of stuff, I mean sometimes I can't always think straight, but that's normally when I've walked into something hard and painful!" Jiraya flashed a toothy grin at his teammate._

"_You can't think straight most of the time," said Orochimaru, attempting a joke._

"_Ah, I've heard that before…" the other teen replied, a sad sort of smile forming on his face._

_When he saw that smile Orochimaru felt an aching pain in his chest. He knew that Jiraya was often made fun of and scolded for his abilities, but occasionally he wondered if the genin ever felt loneliness, the feeling of an outsider, a feeling that Orochimaru knew well._

"_You shouldn't smile when you don't want to," murmured the black-haired genin quietly. Jiraya looked up startled, then looked down again and smiled, happily this time._

"_Thanks," he replied quietly, gazing down at the grass smiling a crooked grin again. He looked up at his friend, "Thanks…" he said again._

_Orochimaru could feel his eyes widen as he gazed at Jiraya's face, and before he could stop his body, he walked over and kissed Jiraya._

_It was a soft kiss, nothing too forceful, suddenly he was standing and the next minute he was pressing his cold lips against Jiraya's rough, warm ones, holding his friend's arms tightly, to prevent him from moving. He could feel his teammate twitch in surprise, then, slowly he relaxed, and started to kiss back. _

_Jiraya couldn't believe how smooth Orochimaru's lips were, the white haired teen had constantly fantasized about his first kiss, of course he'd never thought it would be with another boy, much less his teammate. The universe appeared the be so much sharper, the brush of Jiraya's thick hair on his cheek sent electrical currents down his back, every slight movement, every twitch of muscle, every eyelid flutter was magnified. Orochimaru sighed, feeling peace for once._

'_He's a damn good kisser,' thought Jiraya absently, his mind was in a complete haze at the moment. It felt so surreal, his teammate was kissing him, and he didn't mind it, actually, he really liked it! He slowly leaned into the kiss, drawing in the rich scent of the woodland and the sensation of Orochimaru's long black making butterfly kisses on his –_

"_No!"_

_Orochimaru blinked, a moment ago he had been kissing Jiraya and the next he was being shoved forcefully away. He didn't understand, his teammate had seemed fine with the kiss, why had he pushed him away?_

"_Jiraya, I, um…"The black-haired teen had no idea what to say, he was not exactly prepared for a situation like this. It also didn't help that his teammate wasn't looking at him. Jiraya had his head down so his white shaded his face, blocking his eyes from view. Orochimaru let his golden eyes look over the blushing boy, wait – blushing? Sure enough, a red flush was covering the lower part of his face as Orochimaru could see._

"_I should go." Jiraya's voice startled Orochimaru out of his reverie; the white-haired teen was gazing down at his sandals. Panic filled the other boy, Jiraya was leaving, why_

_Before he could say another word his teammate was off, leaving a stunned and confused Orochimaru in his wake. Jiraya ran all the way to his apartment before throwing himself in the shower. Later, he flopped on his bed and fell immediately asleep._

_The next day Jiraya's team got together again, Jiraya fought with Tsunade and griped like usual. Orochimaru never said anything about the kiss, but sometimes Jiraya could feel his teammate watching him silently. Jiraya was relived, thinking that everything would go back to normal. He was wrong, a couple weeks later Orochimaru left Konoha and never looked back._

_--_

"Ero-sennin! Wake up you perv!"

Jiraya blinked, his still sleepy eyes adjusting to the sunlight. Looking up, he saw his student Naruto standing over him with a rather annoyed expression on his tan face.

"Oi oi gaki, not so loud…" The white-haired man slowly sat up and stretched, groaning with satisfaction when he heard his joints pop back into place. Blinking some more he looked around, he must have dozed for some time, it had gotten darker out and some small bats were starting to flit around the trees.

"Loud my ass old man, you've been snoring over there forever! You did promise to teach me some cool new jutsu if I found you, I'll master it on the first try dattebayo!" Cried Naruto, an enthusiastic gleam in his eye.

"Eh, we'll see, just don't set the woods on fire like last time," muttered Jiraya, lazily searching for his sake bottle.

"No way is that going to happen, after all," the Kitsune vessel declared with a trademark grin, "I'm gonna be the next Hokage dattebayo!"

"Uh huh kid, whatever you say", mumbled the sennin with a sarcastic look on his face. Ignoring Naruto's angry retorts he stood up and dusted himself off. Gazing at his student's bright face he vowed that he would never leave this kid alone until he met his goals, he wouldn't let Naruto make the same mistakes with Sasuke that Jiraya had made with Orochimaru. Smiling Jiraya turned and walked into the sunset, to a hopeful future.

Owari –

**A/N:** I hoped you liked my story! Reviews will be really appreciated. This is my first, so constructive criticism is great!


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